Scarcely conscious of what he did, Captain de Haldimar
grasped one of his pistols, for he fancied he felt the
hot breathing of human life upon his cheek. With a sickly
sensation of fear, he turned to satisfy himself whether
it was not an illusion of his heated imagination. What,
however, was his dismay, when he beheld bending over him
a dark and heavy form, the outline of which alone was
distinguishable in the deep gloom in which the ravine
remained enveloped! Desperation was in the heart of the
excited officer: he cocked his pistol; but scarcely had
the sharp ticking sound floated on the air, when he felt
a powerful hand upon his chest; and, with as much facility
as if he had been a child, was he raised by that invisible
hand to his feet. A dozen warriors now sprang to the
assistance of their comrade, when the whole, having
disarmed and bound their prisoner, led him back in triumph
to their encampment.
CHAPTER IX.
The fires of the Indians were nearly now extinct; but
the faint light of the fast dawning day threw a ghastly,
sickly, hue over the countenances of the savages, which
rendered them even more terrific in their war paint.
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